


No "I" In Team

by Mangaluva



Category: DCU, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: AU mostly in the BNHA universe but the Justice League is there too over in America, Gen, I let Bakugo Katsuki say fuck, Kids who don't pay enough attention in English class, PG-13 robot violence, Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, You Have Been Warned, allusion to Endeavour existing, teenage groupchats about butts, unpleasant interactions with distant fathers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-14 13:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17509727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mangaluva/pseuds/Mangaluva
Summary: U. A. gets in a guest lecturer to talk about hero teams and team-ups. He's got quite a bit of experience.





	1. Training

**Author's Note:**

> What’s up folks I’m sick as hell and have been for like a week and after spending three days of that week marathoning this anime that one or two people or maybe everybody I know has been telling me to watch, I had to write this just to get it out of my brain 
> 
> Named, beta-read and caused by the lovely [Isis_the_Sphinx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis_the_Sphinx/pseuds/Isis_the_Sphinx) and barely edited, but my fever wanted me to yeet this onto the internet so here goes

Growing up, Izuku had  _ seen _ Dagooba Beach becoming an open garbage tip as more and more people decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, and ditched appliances, furniture and more that they wanted rid of but didn’t want to pay to have taken away properly. He’d never have expected it to be as beautiful as it was when he now arrived every morning for his daily jog with All Might, and felt more than a little pride that that was all down to  _ his  _ hard work. The sun wasn’t fully over horizon, giving the whole beach a soft golden glow, and it put a bit of colour in All Might’s often ashen cheeks.

 

“ Good morning, Young Midoriya!” he called, his voice almost as hearty in his smaller stature as the famous booming tones of his muscle form. “A beautiful day, is it not?”

 

“ Good morning, All Might,” Izuku said. The sight of his hero always made him smile, even like this. “How are you feeling?”

 

“ Fine, my boy, absolutely fine! Shall we go?” All Might said, turning and beginning to lope off. Izuku jogged after him, keeping up easily even though he had to take two or three strides to every one of All Might’s. He didn’t bring it up. Even with his secret out to the world, All Might was still generally tight-lipped about the progress of his health. It probably wasn’t getting any better—he’d told Izuku as much, the first time they’d met—but he didn’t seem likely to tell anybody if it was getting worse, so the morning jogs were as much about Izuku waking up his brain as his body as he watched his mentor, trying to assess how he was  _ really _ doing.

 

It seemed to be a good day, not the slightest cough or slow-down apparent by the time they reached the end of the beach and stopped to stretch before turning around and heading back. Izuku was so engrossed in watching All Might run— _ are my legs getting longer, or are his strides getting shorter? Better check my height again when I get home, I’m sure I’ve gained a couple of centimetres lately— _ that he was taken completely by surprise when All Might suddenly waved and called, “Ho! Good morning!”

 

Somebody was jogging up the beach towards them—or rather, looking at his high-end jogging clothes, he was just out jogging and his course happened to cross paths with Izuku and All Might. Weirdly, the guy was also wearing a small black mask that hid his eyes, shadowing them weirdly under the bouncy fringes of his longish black hair. “Good morning!” he called, waving and jogging up to them. “All Might, sir! I wasn’t expecting to run into you this early in the day! How are you?”

 

“ Absolutely fine, young man—I wasn’t expecting to see you either,” All Might said with a smile. “How was your flight?”

 

“ Oh, the jet lag is still a problem—I don’t normally wake up this early,” the stranger admitted, putting one hand on his hip and scratching the top of his head with the other. His Japanese was good, just slightly slow and with an unmistakably American cadence. “But I saw this beach on the taxi ride last night and thought it looked like a great place to come exercise it out!”

 

“ Beautiful, is it not? Could you imagine that barely a year ago, all this was a rubbish tip?” All Might said, spreading his arms before bringing one around to rub Izuku’s head affectionately. “Nothing but abandoned fridges and sofas as far as the eye could see! Young Midoriya cleaned it all as part of his training!”

 

“ Really? The whole beach?” the stranger said, looking at Izuku in surprise. “I’m sorry, where are my manners? You can call me Nightwing.” He gave a quick formal bow in the Japanese style, then held a hand out for Izuku to shake, American-style. “You’re a UA student, aren’t you? I think I saw you in the Sports Festival footage.”

 

“ Yes, sir! Midoriya Izuku, Class 1-A,” Izuku said, shaking the man’s hand. For his slender frame, he was very strong, and had very calloused palms. “Oh! My hero name is Deku. Are you a hero from America?”

 

“ That I am!” Nightwing said, grinning. “Well, I shouldn’t interrupt your workout—I can hear  _ my _ mentor frowning from here at me for interrupting mine—” He shuddered with an exaggerated expression of horror, to which All Might laughed heartily. “—but I’m sure I’ll see you at UA, Deku!”

 

“ Good to see you, young Nightwing,” All Might said. Nightwing nodded, smiled and jogged off. “Well, that was a pleasant morning surprise!”

 

“ Why did he say he’ll see me at UA?” Izuku said, watching the man jog away. “Is he a new teacher? He looks too old to be a transfer student…”

 

“ Of a sort… well, that’s a secret, Young Midoriya!” All Might said, pressing a finger to his lips. “I am sure I can trust you to keep a secret once again, at least until after your homeroom announcements?”

 

“ Of course, sir,” Izuku said earnestly, following his mentor as they jogged away. “Did you know him when you were a hero in America?”

 

“ A little, though he was only a child at the time,” All Might reminisced. “His mentor is a… memorable character, certainly. Young Nightwing does not seem to have grown up much like his mentor at all. He’s much more cheerful!”

 

“ Who’s his mentor?” Izuku asked curiously. He didn’t know as much about international superheroes as he did about Japanese heroes, only really being familiar with the big names like Superman.

 

“ Have you heard of Batman, Young Midoriya?” All Might asked.

 

Izuku nearly tripped over his own feet trying to look over his shoulder at the friendly, chipper man they’d jogged past and mentally overlaying it with probably the world’s most famous underground hero, whose very Quirk was unknown. “Really? His mentor was  _ Batman _ ?” he said in surprise. “Wait, All Might—if you know Batman, do you know what his Quirk is? It’s one of the biggest mysteries in hero fan circles, I personally think there’s a lot of evidence that he has some sort of mind control power but—”

 

“ Ahhh, Young Midoriya, now  _ that _ is a secret that is not mine to share!” All Might laughed, putting a steadying hand on Izuku’s elbow before jogging on.

 

“ Okay, but does that mean you  _ know _ ?!”

  
  


~~~

 

“ Alright, classroom announcements,” Aizawa said tiredly, checking his notes. “Oh yeah. This semester, once a week your afternoon exercises are gonna be replaced by a seminar and exercises on teamwork between superheroes from a guest teacher from America. His Japanese is fine, his sense of personal space is… American. Try not to bring any villains down on his head, please.”

 

“ Yes, Sensei,” they chorused immediately.

 

Iida stuck a hand up. “Sensei, who  _ is _ this American hero? Is it somebody affiliated with the Justice League, or the Outsiders, or—”

 

“ Let me finish the announcement before asking questions,” Aizawa sighed. “As it happens, yes, he is on the roster of the Justice League, and the Outsiders, and Young Justice,  _ and _ the Teen Titans, and…” He flipped over a page on his notes. “You get the picture. He knows his teamwork. His hero name’s Nightwing, he runs a secret identity so you will address him as Nightwing-sensei.  _ Now _ you can ask questions.”

 

“ Which day do we have Nightwing-sensei’s seminar?” Yaoyorozu asked.

 

“ Mondays, so your first seminar is today,” Aizawa said, checking his notes. “Let me add this—this class has faced more villains together than the rest of the classes in this school put together, god help me, and you’ve always shown a lot of aptitude for working together as a team. You’ve got a good attitude and experience, but that does  _ not _ mean you don’t have more to learn. If anything, it means you’re in the best position to learn from these seminars. Understand?”

 

“ Yes, Sensei,” they chorused together again.

  
  


~~~

 

The pre-exercise seminar took place in the classroom, so they all drifted back after lunch, most of them looking up Nightwing on their phones.

 

“ Todoroki, man, you got real good English scores,” Kaminari said plaintively, holding out his phone. “Can you read any of the stats on this guy?”

 

“ Try going to the actual wiki instead of the fanpage with the coolest banner,” Jirou said boredly, scrolling her own phone. “Aizawa-sensei wasn’t kidding. This guy’s been on, like,  _ every _ team in America, and a truckload of international teams.”

 

“It’s kind of surprising,” Izuku commented. “I, uh… read somewhere that his mentor was Batman, whose only known team is the Justice League and he barely even appears on _that.”_

 

“ Really? Why not?” Uraraka asked. “I don’t know international heroes super well…”

 

“ Batman is a hero of great mystique,” Tokoyami commented. “He is America’s Number Three Hero, after Superman and Wonder Woman, but little is known about him. He has never shared his secret identity, his face, or even his  _ Quirk _ .”

 

“ Wait, nobody knows what the dude’s Quirk is?” Kirishima said in surprise. “Midoriya! Dude, you’ve always got the nerd stats!  _ Nobody _ knows?!”

 

“ There’s a lot of theories, but he’s an Underground Hero who tends to do stealth missions when he’s not with the Justice League, and even with them he isn’t a particularly public figure,” Izuku said, scrolling some fan forums on his own phone. His translation app was doing its best, but it wasn’t great with all of the acronyms. “Some of the popular theories are that he has some kind of teleportation quirk, or can phase through solid surfaces, or can read minds, but nobody knows for sure and he won’t answer questions about it…”

 

“ Everybody! Class will resume in five minutes!” Iida announced. “Please be prepared to receive our guest teacher with respect!”

 

“ I wonder if he’s tall?” Ashido commented, drifting back towards her desk. “Americans are all super duper tall, right?”

 

“ Maybe he looks like All Might! Like, super big and blonde and stuff!” Hagakure added. “Only, you know, All Might when he was all buff, not, y’know—”

 

“ Not all Americans are blonde,” Asui pointed out. “He might be black. There are lots of black Americans.”

 

“ Do you know what  _ his _ Quirk is?” Uraraka asked Izuku. “Or does he keep it a secret, like Batman?”

 

“ Uh, I don’t know,” Izuku said, frowning as he focused on trying to translate the English on the forum he was reading, but there was a lot of scientific terminology he didn’t understand. “It looks like people do  _ know _ what his quirk is, but—Todoroki-kun, can you read—?”

 

Before he could hand his phone back, though, the end-of-lunch bell rang, and he hastily turned his phone off and shoved it in his bag as the last stragglers scrambled into their seats to sit up straight, eyes on the door.

 

“ It’s not a secret, but tell you what, I’ll give extra credit to whoever guesses what my Quirk is!”

 

“ OHMYGOD—!” Hagakure yelped, her uniform nearly falling out of her chair as a dark figure swung through the open window next to her and elegantly backflipped over to the front of the classroom, bouncing off of Shouji’s shoulders on the way. “WHOTHE—?”

 

“ Hello, Nightwing-sensei,” Izuku called, recognizing the man he’d seen on the beach that morning. Instead of jogging clothes, he was now wearing tight, sculpted black body armour with a blue bird-shaped logo on his chest, the wings stretching over his shoulders and turning into blue stripes that ran down his arms and over the middle fingers of his gloves. He stood at the front of the classroom with his hands on his hips and a shit-eating grin on his face.

 

“ Nightwing-sensei! Hello!” Iida said sharply, and the rest of the class trickled in an erratic stream of greetings as they gathered that this was not just a surprise ninja but their actual  _ teacher _ for the afternoon. “I apologize for the lackluster greetings, sensei, you startled us! Class 1-A, one more time—!”

 

“ That’s okay, I  _ did _ come in through the window,” Nightwing laughed, holding up a hand. “Class 1-A. Nice to meet you. Sounds like you’ve been doing your own intel-gathering, which is always a good thing to do, but for manners’ sake, my name is Nightwing and I’m sure it’ll be a pleasure to teach you this semester. Now, I understand this class is a bit of a special case?”

 

When they all exchanged uneasy glances without saying anything, Nightwing laughed. “Okay, I watched all of your Sports Festivals before coming to this school to get a feel for the classes, but I also spoke to your homeroom teachers and Aizawa-sensei said you’ve already faced villains twice as a class and more than a few of you in your work experience, which seems to be pretty unusual here.”

 

“ Nightwing-sensei!” Iida said, raising his hand. “Iida Tenya, class representative. We faced villains all together twice—on our first day of rescue training and during our summer training camp, which was subsequently canceled!”

 

Nightwing nodded. “I’m sorry you all had to deal with that,” he said gently, “but it’s valuable experience and worth mining for all we can learn from it, so I just want to check that I’m not gonna trample all over anybody’s deep-seated trauma by digging into it. By the way, I want to stress—by the very nature of what we do, we experience some deeply frightening and traumatizing situations. I’ve been dong this since I was younger than you, and pretty much the whole time I’ve been regularly visiting another hero who’s also a licensed therapist.” He smiled warmly at the class. “There’s absolutely no shame in taking care of yourself mentally, and really, it’s the only way to stay in the game and stay effective. So, no shame and no judgment, is anybody going to really struggle with us going over your villain experiences this semester?”

 

Izuku glanced anxiously at Bakugo, then raised his hand. “Nightwing-sensei, do you only intend to ask about the USJ and the summer camp?”

 

“ Yes, though if you have other experiences you’d like to discuss I’m open to it,” Nightwing said with a nod. “Midoriya-kun, right? I understand you’ll have a lot to talk about!”

 

“ Yeah,” Izuku said with a weak chuckle.  _ If he doesn’t know about us rescuing Kacchan from All For One, it should be okay,  _ he thought, his gaze also drifting over Iida, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, remembering the fear on their faces just from being in All For One’s  _ presence _ , or how close Iida came to being murdered by Stain. He looked back at Bakugo, who was, after all, kidnapped at the Summer Camp, but Bakugo had his arms tightly folded and his customary scowl on his face. If he felt anything about the prospect of digging into the events of the Summer Camp, it wasn’t surprising that he wasn’t sharing.

 

_ Izuku _ still felt a cold horror when he remembered Bakugo vanishing into the darkness, just out of the reach of his shattered arms, but that just made him more determined to learn how to do better next time.

 

“ Nobody? You kids are tough!” Nightwing said brightly, clasping his hands. “Okay, reeling it back from the heavy stuff for a minute: the Sports Festival. You all had to form teams for the… what do you call it?” He snapped his fingers a few times, muttering in English.

 

“ The Cavalry Battle?” Yaoyorozu offered.

 

“ Yes! Bonus points, Yaoyorozu-san,” Nightwing said, pointing at her with a smile. “Right, can you all stand up and group together in the teams you made for that?”

 

Izuku got up, immediately finding Uraraka and carefully shuffling between the desks and students to get to Tokoyami. “Nightwing-sensei?” he asked, raising his hand again. “We also teamed up with a girl from the support course, since all of first year were together…”

 

“ Yeah, but as I suspected, it looks like all of you joined up with at least one classmate you already knew, so it’s fine if you don’t have everybody,” Nightwing said, looking around with a nod. “Right, now, can you tell me why you chose the teammates you did? Iida-kun, how about your group here first?”

 

Iida glanced over Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Kaminari. “Well, I… truthfully, I approached Todoroki-kun because he is one of the strongest in our class,” he admitted, “and thus I felt that he was my best opportunity to defeat Midoriya-kun and take the ten million point headband that he had.”

 

“ Specific goals, and a refreshing humility when it comes to other people’s abilities,” Nightwing said with a nod. “And Todoroki-kun, why did you agree to join up with Iida-kun?”

 

“ His speed Quirk and strength made him ideal to make our group mobile and evasive,” Todoroki explained. “I approached Yaoyorozu and Kaminari because I could see a way to combine their Quirks for a powerful offensive attack.”

 

“ The insulation sheet and electricity blast? I saw that, it was a brilliant piece of strategy,” Nightwing commented. “Yaoyorozu-san, Kaminari-kun, did you accept Todoroki-kun’s invitation for the same reason as Iida-kun?”

 

“ Pretty much, yeah,” Kaminari admitted with a shrug. “You said you saw the videos, you know how wicked strong Todoroki is!”

 

“ He approached me with a very good strategy that seemed likely to net us the most points,” Yaoyorozu said. “There was no reason to turn him down.”

 

Nightwing went around the room, collecting people’s reasons for teaming up. After a while, he wrote a list of reasons on the board, though he wrote them in romanized Japanese. After about ten minutes and some discussion starting up, he clapped his hands loudly.

 

“ Alright! Good job, back to your seats, please,” he called. Once everybody had sat down, he continued, “so we’ve got some good reasons for choosing teammates. Strategy towards a specific goal, bonds of trust, playing to each others’ strengths, combining Quirks—these are all great things to think about when choosing an office to start as a sidekick with, or when choosing sidekicks of your own or forming professional teams. Now, imagine something for me. You’re on holiday, somewhere away from other heroes that you’re familiar with, when there’s… oh, a villain attack, probably. Civilians are in danger, you’re a professional, of course you’re going to help, and so are any other pro heroes in the vicinity. How many of these factors are in play when it comes to working with these heroes?” He waved a hand at the list on the board, then stood to one side, hands on his hips.

 

They all exchanged uncomfortable looks for a few moments before Tsuyu raised a hand. “Well… none of them,” she said. “If something like that happens, you don’t get to choose who you’re fighting with, and they don’t get to choose you, do they?”

 

“ Correct, Asui-san!” Nightwing said, clapping his hands. “And you don’t get time to stand around and chat in a disaster scenario in order to make a plan or find out what each other can do, generally. So, you’re in a disaster, you don’t have time to stand and chat. What do you think is the most important thing to understand about the other heroes on the field? Don’t bother with hands, just shout it out!”

 

“ Who’s the strongest!” Bakugo yelled, predictably.

 

“ Good guess, but not necessarily!” Nightwing said with a nod. “Anybody else?”

 

“ Well, the other heroes might be local and might be a team already,” Uraraka put in. “So I guess figuring out if they are and if they should take the lead?”

 

“ Oooh, close! Good answer, very close!” Nightwing said, giving her a thumbs-up. “Anybody want to take that a little farther?”

 

“ Chain of command,” Tokoyami declared.

 

“ Ding ding ding!” Nightwing sang, giving him a double thumbs up. “Chain of command. It sounds stuffy, it sounds like something with ranks and orders that takes time to establish, but when it comes to a surprise fight, it can be one of the most useful things to establish. And the thing about the professional hero system in this country is that you don’t have to know a pro hero personally to trust them in a battle. You know they’ve been educated like you, they’ve gone through the same tests as you, you can be sure that they know what they’re doing. I’m not saying you trust them with all your secrets or your first-born child, but you know you can work with them in a surprise fight. If there isn’t even the basest level of trust, surprise team-ups can go badly wrong—that’s actually how the Justice League was first formed…”

 

~~~

 

“ I can’t believe Batman and Superman actually  _ did _ fight,” Izuku groaned for what had to be the hundredth time since the seminar ended, “ _ and we don’t have a clear winner because they got distracted by aliens. _ ”

 

Tsuyu patted him kindly on the shoulder. They were all gathered in the hallway outside one of the training gyms that Nightwing had commandeered for exercises, bringing them in one at a time and setting those in waiting the exercise of discussing their first villain battle at the USJ and picking one thing they learned about teamwork there. Izuku knew Tsuyu had drifted over to talk to him about their teamup in the water area, as their other teammate, Mineta, had long been expelled for sexual harassment, but he appreciated her giving him space for his meltdown before getting to the actual assignment.

 

“ Yo, Froppy, if he’s still melting down, help me out,” Shinsou said, flopping down next to her. “I didn’t transfer into this class until way after the USJ and I’m trying to figure out what to tell Nightwing-sensei when it’s my turn.”

 

“ Hmm, well… what do you think you could have done?” Tsuyu suggested. “You haven’t fought in any teamups before, right? How do you think your Quirk could be useful to others?”

 

“ Dunno… never really thought of it as  _ useful _ ,” Shinsou said, scratching the back of his neck. “I guess… I could control a bad guy and make him turn on his teammates?”

 

“ That could work, but you’d have to make sure to tip off your teammates that that’s what you’re doing,” Izuku suggested. “Otherwise, they might attack your puppet by accident and make your control. What about shellshocked civilians, too? If they’re too frightened to run on their own, but you can get them to respond to you, you could always  _ tell _ them to run away.”

 

“… is taking control of civilians like that okay?” Shinsou said, blinking slowly at Izuku.

 

“ Ask Nightwing-sensei,” Tsuyu said bluntly. “Midoriya-kun, if you’re back, we have to talk about the USJ. How did you come up with the plan you did?”

 

“ Well, we got lucky in that we got time to talk and compare our Quirks,” Izuku said thoughtfully. “And time to assess our enemies, too. And really, we weren’t trying to  _ win _ , just escape—we had a clear chain of command, Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen-sensei…”

 

“ Alright, next up: Ashido Mina-san!” Nightwing called, opening the gym door.

 

“ Nightwing-sensei? Where’s Aoyama?” Ojiro asked when their classmate did not walk back out the door.

 

“ Results are a secret until everybody’s finished,” Nightwing said with a wink. “Hey, I love the costume, Ashido-san! Alien inspired?”

 

“ Yeah! My hero name is Alien Queen!” Ashido sang, striking a pose before following Nightwing into the gym.

 

“ Whaaaaaaat?!” they heard Nightwing exclaim in English before switching back to Japanese. “That’s such a cool name!”

 

“ Ooooh, I was hoping to ask Aoyama what happened!” Hagakure said, her gloves fidgeting nervously in the air. “Do you think we have to fight him? We still don’t know what his Quirk is!”

 

“ I bet that’s why he’s keeping us from sharing information,” Ojiro mused.

 

“ Damn, that’s sneaky!” Kaminari complained. “Yo, Jirou, can you find Aoyama?”

 

“ Bet that sparkly weirdo failed anyway,” Bakugo grumbled.

 

“ Aoyama’s in the changing rooms on the other side,” Jirou commented, one ear plugged into the wall. “He’s not saying anything, though.”

 

“ What if you stayed plugged in and whoever’s up next makes sure to tell us what happened from the changing room?” Uraraka suggested excitedly.

 

“ That sounds like cheating,” Iida reprimanded her with a frown.

 

“ I don’t know… it  _ would _ show teamwork,” Tsuyu put in. “Isn’t that what his classes are all about?”

 

“ That’s it! The real test is to work together to get around his testing conditions and figure it out together!” Yaoyorozu said excitedly. “Are we all agreed, then, that we will communicate whatever we can figure out from the changing rooms?”

 

“ Like I need any of you idiots to help  _ me _ win!” Bakugo snapped automatically.

 

“ Bro, c’mon,” Kirishima said, rolling his eyes. “Let’s do this!”

 

“ So anyway,” Tsuyu said, turning back to Izuku as the class dissolved into chatter again, “if we were fighting the USJ fight again, how would you do it  _ without _ breaking your bones?”

 

~~~

 

Half the class was called before it was Izuku’s turn to go in, and in that time, none of them—especially Bakugo—managed to figure out what Nightwing’s quirk was before it was Jirou’s turn to go. Tsuyu did communicate, though, that rather than fighting  _ against _ Nightwing, they were teaming up  _ with _ him to fight a robot enemy.

 

Izuku barely got two steps through the door before something smashed into the wall next to his ear. Only fast reflexes saved him from a robot fist to the face.

 

“ Nightwing-sensei?” he called, looking around. The gym was already torn up into heaps of rubble, and he could make out the telltale blast burns of a pissed-off Bakugo Katsuki and some puddles of Ashido’s acid. The guest teacher himself was nowhere to be seen.

 

He dodged away quickly as the robot turned. It was broadly humanoid, but silver and faceless.  _ Oh, great, a sink-or-swim test, _ he thought with a gulp, swinging back a leg and getting ready to kick with the full force of five percent of One For All.

 

“ Don’t use your Quirk!” Nightwing suddenly called. Izuku looked up to see him crawling over the top of a pile of rubble, blood on his face.

 

“ Nightwing-sensei!” Izuku called, re-channeling the power into a big jump, allowing him to reach the American in a moment. Nightwing grabbed Izuku and pulled him over the rubble and down the pile a moment before the robot shot over with astonishing speed, smashing into the lump of concrete he’d crawled over a moment before.

 

“ It’s called Amazo! It can copy any Quirk it sees!” Nightwing shouted. “You just gave it your super jump!”

 

“ It’s not a super jump!” Izuku shouted, before remembering,  _ and he knows that. He knows what all of our Quirks are. This is a scenario. Okay… _ “If you know what it is, do you know how to take it down? Watch out!” he yelled, pushing Nightwing away and throwing himself backwards as Amazo smashed down on them in a flying kick. Nightwing backflipped away, drawing two escrima sticks.

 

“ I don’t know how to stop it, no!” Nightwing yelled. “But we’ve got to figure it out before it gets out of here and goes after the rest of the school!”

 

_ Maybe I could smash it if I could get in one good hit of One For All?  _ Izuku thought, his mind racing.  _ But if I miss, or it can tough out five percent, then it gets a super-strong punch too. If I just knew what Nightwing-sensei’s Quirk is… I guess it’s worth a shot to just ask? _

 

“ Nightwing-sensei!” he shouted. “What’s your Quirk?”

 

“ It’s—ugh!” Nightwing yelped as Amazo jumped at him, barely blocking a powerful punch with his sticks and rolling between Amazo’s legs before flipping away. “Does it matter? I can’t use it without this thing stealing it!”

 

_ Guess it’s not gonna be that easy, then… okay, _ Izuku thought, taking a deep breath.  _ He’s quick, and that robot has to have a weak point  _ somewhere…

 

Amazo was mainly using kicks, using the superstrength it had copied from Izuku. It was also focused on Nightwing. Izuku circled it carefully, then, figuring that he’d already given away his super-strength jumps, propelled himself forwards with a six-percent jump and grabbed one of Amazo’s upraised arms, slamming it into the ground in a clumsy but functional armlock.

 

“ Quick! Do you see any sort of weak point?” he shouted.

 

“ No, but—hang on! The eyes!” Nightwing said, holstering one of the sticks and drawing some kind of sharp, bird-shaped implement. “Just hold it still for a second—”

 

Amazo kicked, its legs extending further than a human’s would to throw Izuku off of its back and send him slamming into Nightwing. He rolled to his feet just before Amazo jumped and landed another flying kick where he had been.

 

“ Midoriya!” Nightwing yelled. “Pick me up and do that again!”

 

“ Jump at it, you mean?” Izuku asked, jumping over and crouching to let Nightwing climb onto his back. The guy  _ was _ pretty tall, but very lithe, as befit the very acrobatic fighting moves that Izuku had seen him using, and he certainly didn’t weigh as much as a fridge. In fact, he barely weighed anything at all.

 

“ Tackle it, we only have to stun it for a moment,” Nightwing said, gripping Izuku’s shoulders with one hand and raising his weird knife in the other. Izuku nodded, charged up his legs, and slammed into Amazo, channeling All For One into his arms at about four percent to hold the robot down when he hit it. Nightwing moved fast, slamming the knife down towards Amazo’s eye.

 

“ _ Pass _ ,” Amazo said in a garbled voice, freezing. Nightwing had also paused, his weapon’s sharp end an inch from the robotic eye. Then he hopped off of Izuku’s back, grinning.

 

“ Thanks, Oracle,” he said, nodding to the robot, which straighted up, the red glow in its eyes fading. “I noticed you channeled your super-strength into your arms at the end there, Midoriya-kun. It was pretty smart to stick to your legs before that, since Amazo had already copied those. Why risk it?”

 

“ Well, going for the eyes seemed like a clear plan and likely to work,” Izuku suggested. “So I thought it was worth the risk to make that final attack more secure. Besides, you used your Quirk too, Nightwing-sensei,” he suggested.

 

“ Oh?” Nightwing said, raising an eyebrow, his grin unwavering. “What do you mean?”

 

“ You’re not too heavily built, and that’s probably on purpose, since you use a lot of acrobatic moves,” Izuku said, “but you can’t be  _ that _ light. And I felt the way you were sort of… not exactly pulling away when you were on my back, but, uh… I don’t know how to explain it, but it felt a little like when Uraraka uses her Quirk. You have a gravity Quirk too, right?”

 

“ You’re the first one to figure that out! Well done!” Nightwing said, applauding. “A grade! Yep, I can make gravity increase or decrease on myself or something in my line of sight, so long as I can  _ maintain _ line of sight. You can imagine why I wouldn’t want to hand that over to Amazo.”

 

“ But it doesn’t exactly copy a full Quirk, just imitates what it sees,” Izuku said, looking down at his legs, “so it was safe if Amazo couldn’t tell you were using your Quirk on my back, right?”

 

“ A  _ plus _ ! Yeah, I threw that in for you more than to make it useful in the fight—you’re pretty damn strong, Midoriya-kun,” Nightwing said, putting his hands on his hips and his grin getting, if it was possible, wider. “Not surprised, if you train with All Might. I can’t imagine what  _ his _ workout routines are like, even if he’s not exactly at his peak anymore…”

 

“ He said he met you once or twice when you were a kid,” Izuku said. “How old  _ were _ you when you started doing this?”

 

Nightwing’s smile didn’t exactly fade, but did gentle, somewhat. “I was nine when I became a vigilante,” he said softly. “It was most definitely  _ not _ legal. I mean, vigilantes by definition are not legal, but—well, America still only recently opened vocational hero schools like this one, and they’re still mostly aimed at adults rather than teenagers. Kids who get mixed up in hero work  _ as _ kids get directed to teams like Young Justice or a branch of the Teen Titans these days, though that’s pretty extra-curricular. And yeah, we only met once or twice—Batman  _ definitely  _ wasn’t supposed to be bringing me to Justice League meetings.” The grin returned, more shit-eating than ever. “We heard he had a new protege. You’re the one who got One For All, huh?”

 

Izuku did a double-take. “You  _ know _ about that?!” he said in surprise. “All Might didn’t say anything!”

 

“ Oh, uh… actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if he knows that Batman figured out that One For All can be passed on,” Nightwing admitted, rubbing one shoulder awkwardly. “I mean, he’s Batman. He can keep a secret. So can I. Anyway, you did good work here today,” he continued quickly. “You got thrown into a dangerous situation and assessed it well, and did your best to gather information from me during the fight even though I wasn’t exactly being helpful. And hey, it was nice of you to just  _ ask _ me what my Quirk was! That’s always worth a try!”

 

“ Thank you, Nightwing-sensei,” Izuku said. “Most heroes are pretty happy to share, in my experience.”

 

“ If they’re willing to team up, yeah,” Nightwing said with a nod. “Gotta watch out for the lone wolves, they can be as much trouble as the villains, sometimes. So, can you remember what’s something that you learned about teamwork at the USJ, or did you forget it in the face of a surprise robot attack?”

 

“ Oh! No, I remember!” Izuku said, slapping his forehead. “Well… running away until you find a safe space to pool your skills and knowledge isn’t a bad idea. That’s what we did. And take advantage of your enemy’s ignorance—we noticed that they weren’t approaching, they were watching and waiting to figure out what our Quirks were, so that gave us time.”

 

“ Those are good points, but just as useful if you’re alone as to a team,” Nightwing pointed out.

 

“… if somebody does something  _ really  _ dangerous and self-sacrificial to give you a moment to escape, don’t waste that moment?” Izuku said after a moment. “Even if they’re your teacher?”

 

“… Aizawa-sensei doesn’t get to complain about  _ you _ making risky sacrifices, does he?” Nightwing sighed, facepalming. “Good work, Midoriya. Head on through to the changing room and get back into your uniform.” He looked up into the air, eyebrows twitching oddly. “Ojiro next, huh… The tail guy?”

 

“ Yeah,” Izuku confirmed. “Nightwing-sensei? Are you hurt?”

 

“ Hmmm? Oh, no,” Nightwing said, patting the sticky smear of red-black on his face. “This is just costume blood, but it’s atmospheric, right? Oracle, you’d never really hurt me, right?” he added in English to Amazo. The robot, which already had a blank expression, simply turned and walked away. “Okay, thanks for helping out with this! Amazo was a real problem for the Justice League at one time, but capturing one sure has made training wild,” he commented, switching back to Japanese for Izuku’s benefit.

 

“ Thank you for the training, Oracle-san,” Izuku yelled after the robot, just in case whoever was controlling it thought he was impolite. It waved a hand back at him.

 

~~~

 

_ 21:34 _

 

**InvisibleGirl**

_ Oh my goooood, my bruises still have bruises! That thing hit  _ hard _! _

 

**KingOfExplodeKills**

_ Stop your whining, at least it couldn’t steal your Quirk and fucking blow you up. _

 

**Ingenium**

_ Did anybody else figure out what Nightwing-sensei’s Quirk is? Midoriya’s being very tight-lipped. _

 

**Cellophane**

_ Wait, whaaaat? Midoriya figured it out?! Dude! _

 

**Deku**

_ I wanted to wait and see if Uraraka figured it out first, actually. _

 

**InvisibleGirl**

_ Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Why Ochaco? _

 

**AlienQueen**

_ Is his Quirk having a super butt? _

 

**Chargebolt**

_??????? _

 

**KingOfExplodeKills**

_ What the fuck Ashido _

 

**AlienQueen**

_ Nightwing-sensei’s super fit with a cute butt, it’s not complicated! _

 

**Ingenium**

_ Lewd discussion of a teacher is highly inappropriate! _

 

**Creati**

_ I’m afraid Iida is right, it’s not appropriate. Besides, he’s clearly an acrobat, that’s probably why his rear is like that. _

 

**AlienQueen**

_ Hey, you were looking too! _

 

**InvisibleGirl**

_ Who didn’t look? You could bounce Kirishima off of that thing! _

 

**Red Riot**

_ Okay or we could also not _

 

**Shouto**

_ Since Uraraka didn’t figure it out, Midoriya, what  _ was _ Nightwing-sensei’s Quirk? Is it something gravity-based like hers? _

 

**Uravity**

_ Who says I didn’t figure it out? I got distracted by butts _

_ And yeah it’s a gravity Quirk, but it’s way more powerful than mine and it doesn’t make him puke! I’m super jealous _

 

**CantStopTwinkling**

_ We must find out his mystical American anti-nausea secrets. _

 

**Deku**

_ I think he’s just been doing this a long time. I bet it made him sick when he was a kid, too. He said he started when he was ni _

 

Izuku paused, then deleted the last sentence and sent off the message into the groupchat. One of Aizawa’s resigned attempts to get them to observe curfew was remotely shutting down all the lights in the communal areas at half past nine and using the intercom to chase people to their rooms if anybody was still out at five to ten, but there was no stopping groupchats. As soon as they’d confirmed their hero names, they’d changed their screennames in the whole-class groupchat, even Bakugo, still sourly clinging to his “King of Explode-Kills” name for lack of a name Midnight would approve.

 

He hadn’t looked up Nightwing’s publicly known hero activity yet, but the guest teacher had mentioned his astonishingly young hero debut in a private conversation about secrets, so he wasn’t sure if it was the kind of thing he should put in the groupchat. Midoriya Izuku could keep a secret too, after all.

 

~~~

 

“ _ Aww, that’s polite, Midoriya just deleted a note about you admitting to illegal child vigilantism instead of putting it in the chat. _ ”

 

“ Why are you spying on teenagers’ groupchats?” Nightwing said, not looking up from the notes he was going over concerning class 2-B for tomorrow’s lesson. “I mean, I know you spy on  _ everybody,  _ but why do that to yourself?”

 

“ _ It’s entertaining while I wait for—Oooh, he’s poking at my firewalls! _ ” Oracle said delightedly. “ _ This is fun! He  _ is _ smart! I’m gonna have to get a protein shake for this one!” _

 

“ Principal Nezu seems pretty concerned with the students’ safety,” Dick commented, fighting off a yawn. “He’d probably just  _ let _ you upgrade his security systems if you just asked.”

 

“ _ Where’s the fun in that? I’m sure he’s having fun too. By the time I’m done, he’ll be asking  _ me  _ for an upgrade. _ ”

 

“ You didn’t have enough fun chasing my students around the gym?” Dick asked with a grin.

 

“ _ You know I didn’t go all-out for that. They’re nice kids, I didn’t want to  _ really _ hurt them. But this mouse is actually a challenge! Or is he some kind of mini bear? Can you find out while you’re there? I can’t tell just from pictures.” _

 

“ Will do,” Nightwing said, standing up and stretching, giving in the the accustomed need for sleep. “Have fun. Love you.”

 

“ _ Will do, _ ” Oracle echoed. “ _ Love you too. _ ”

 

Nightwing started digging into his suitcase for a shirt he could sleep in as he disconnected from the voice connection. He wasn’t accustomed to sleeping as early as ten, but he was still jetlagged and was only here on a teaching visa, not a hero visa. No night work for him, just sleep.

 

_ Besides _ …  _ maybe I can “accidentally” run into All Might and the Midoriya kid while jogging again,  _ he thought, setting an alarm and slipping under the sheets.  _ I’m curious about that kid. He didn’t display any Quirk aside from One For All… maybe he was Quirkless too? Batman would  _ love _ that… _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus god I want to keep this to a oneshot I wrote in a high fever while off work, why do I feel like I’m going to get more ideas about this
> 
> Okay so some facts in, around and adjacent to this fic:  
> A) Tsuyu is my favourite  
> B) Vaguely set after the end of Season 3 but before the Internship arc starts I guess, I haven’t read the manga yet and only know things about that secondhand  
> C) I’m glad that it’s a fandom convention to kick Mineta out of the class and replace him with Shinsou and I heartily endorse it  
> D) I watched in English because I’m sick and lazy but I do actually live and work in Japan so I made my best guess at the suffixes. I should watch in Japanese when I’ve got a clearer head but watching the anime in Japanese just for forms of address seemed a bit much for 7k of intrusive thoughts  
> E) Dick’s Quirk is indeed gravity control, but it was a late bloomer—it didn’t show up until after his parents died. Wishing he’d been able to control gravity when they fell haunts him, but this is a fun fic!  
> F) Oracle’s Quirk is an IQ boost—that is, she can burn calories for IQ points. She was already pretty damn smart and going in a wheelchair, with half of her body no longer using energy, made her IQ rocket up. She and Nezu are weird hacking rival friends, really.  
> G) Batman’s Quirkless. This is an absolute lockdown secret and he subtly encourages people to speculate on what his Quirk is.  
> H) All this happened because I devoured all of the BNHA anime in three days and then started thinking about what the Batfam’s Quirks would be and how much Class 1-A would wind up with a third dad (after Dadzawa and Dad Might) if Batman ever met them and then I caught up with the new Young Justice and thought “shit, Dick does the same damn thing.”  
> I) Pairing neutral because I really and truly don’t care


	2. Sting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku meets with his father, and no, it's not All Might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so there is a second part to this because a wild plot appeared and it'll go on to a third part and THEN I'm done I promise

“Okay, Midoriya,” Todoroki said, suddenly standing between Izuku and his locker. Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin—how long had he been lost in his thoughts? Oh god, what had he been _muttering_?! “What’s wrong?”

 

Izuku folded his arms, then realized he’d folded his arms defensively and unfolded them, feeling very awkward about having them just hanging at his sides. Where do people _put_ their arms when they aren’t using them? “It’s nothing,” he said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let it distract me from class today—”

 

“It’s fine,” Todoroki cut him off. “I’m sure you’ve already planned out combination attacks you could use with every member of the class and then some. I’m not worried about our grades. I just…” He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets and looking away. “I noticed something seemed to be bothering you and thought maybe if you wanted to talk about it… you don’t have to.”

 

“O-oh, uh… thank you?” Izuku said, fidgeting nervously. Todoroki was much better at being intimidating than he was at being emotionally open, but he was trying, and Izuku didn’t have it in him to shut the repressed boy down when he was making an awkward attempt to be supportive. “It really isn’t a big thing. I just got an email from my dad this morning and it’s thrown me for a loop.”

 

“What, does All Might want to see you after class?” Sero asked. Kaminari and Kirishima both burst out laughing.

 

“Wh—Todoroki, have you been telling people your weird theories?!” Izuku blurted out, turning red.

 

“I never told anybody about that theory,” Todoroki said stoically, “but you have to admit, it’s pretty telling that multiple people have thought of it independently.”

 

“Honestly, the fact that _you_ think All Might is Midoriya’s dad actually makes me take that idea more seriously,” Sato put in. “I mean, most people are kinda joking, but you take stuff _really_ seriously, Todoroki.”

 

“Guys, he’s _not_ my dad,” Izuku groaned. “I know we have similar Quirks but that’s it! I mean, okay, growing up I might’ve _pretended_ he was my dad sometimes, but…” he trailed off, mumbling.

 

“Hey, don’t laugh at the guy,” Shouji said, extending an arm to pat Izuku on the shoulder. “I’ve been there too, Midoriya. My dad took off when I was a toddler and I’m not scared to admit I pretended All Might was my dad sometimes. I’m sure tons of kids without dads have done the same thing.”

 

“All Might is perhaps not the most gifted teacher on the planet, but he is very emotionally supportive in a somewhat paternal manner to all of his students!” Iida added loudly.

 

“He does give very fatherly hugs,” Tokoyami mused.

 

“Wait, when—oh yeah, the Sports Festival,” Kaminari recalled. “Dude, I am _so_ jealous. I mean, I was giving it my all _anyway_ , but I think I could’ve found some more all to give if I knew the top three medals came with All Might hugs, y’know?”

 

“The hug was… very nice,” Todoroki admitted quietly. “Anyway, all jokes aside… is there a reason contact from your father is concerning, Midoriya?”

 

“Oh, well… oh! No! I mean, not like you’re thinking,” Izuku said quickly, remembering what Todoroki’s relationship with _his_ father was like. “It’s just that, well, I haven’t seen him in nearly ten years. He lives in America, where his job is—Mom and I lived with him when I was really little, but then Mom moved back to Japan with me and Dad never moved over with us…” He shrugged. “I mean, we know where he is and how to contact him, we just… don’t, generally. I think I sent him an email letting him know when I got accepted to UA, but a few emails a year is kinda all the contact we’ve had in a long time.”

 

“Fucker stopped visiting after you got diagnosed Quirkless, right?” Bakugo commented. He’d been pointedly ignoring the whole conversation about All Might. “Kinda remember meeting that fuckin’ weirdo once. Brought over a ton of American superhero merch and kept trying to convince us Superman was stronger than All Might. Freak.”

 

“Yeah… now that I really think about it, I guess the last time I saw him I was… six or so?” Izuku said, fidgeting again. He didn’t have many good memories from that age and usually avoided thinking about it at all. “I remember… he was really disappointed that my Quirk hadn’t come in yet. He said in his email that he’d seen reruns of the Sports Festival, though, and he was proud of me for getting into UA and finally getting my Quirk.”

 

“So what you’re saying it, the dude stopped giving a shit when he thought you were Quirkless and now that you have a super strong Quirk he suddenly cares?” Kirishima said with a frown. “That’s _super_ unmanly of him.”

 

“Yeah… basically,” Izuku sighed. “It would explain why he’s coming to visit again all of a sudden.”

 

“What the fuck? Auntie Inko better tell him to fuck off,” Bakugo snorted. “ _You_ _’d_ better tell him to fuck off.”

 

“I should at least say hi if he’s coming all this way,” Izuku protested.

 

“That is very polite of you, but you need not go alone if contact with the man discomforts you!” Iida said, chopping the air vigorously. “However, we ought to continue this conversation later, as surely Aizawa-sensei will be awaiting our prompt return to the classroom!”

 

“O-oh, right! Umm, Todoroki, could I get into my locker?” Izuku asked, gratefully latching onto the change in subject.

 

The other boy finally stepped out of the way, going to his own locker with a thoughtful frown.

 

~~~

 

_**Todoroki Shouto** _ _added_ _**Iida Tenya, Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu** _ _and_ _**Shinsou Hitoshi** _ _to the group._

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** Did I do this right?

 

 **Uraraka Ochako:** sure did! just a sec

 

_**Uraraka Ochako** _ _changed their nickname to_ _**Uravity** _

 

 **Uravity:** so whats this group chat for todoroki?

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** Midoriya.

 

 **Iida Tenya:** Is this regarding the email he received from his father?

 

_**Asui Tsuyu** _ _changed their nickname to_ _**Froppy** _

 

 **Froppy: a** llmight emails now?

 

_**Shinsou Hitoshi** _ _changed their nickname to_ _**Jedi Mind Trick** _

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** we all made that joke in the boys locker room already

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** apparently midoriya has an actual estranged father in america whos coming to visit for the first time in like ten years

 

 **Iida Tenya:** He seemed somewhat unsettled by the topic, but he made it clear that he did not wish to be accompanied!

 

 **Uravity:** ok but… we could still follow him anyway right?

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** That was my thinking, yes.

 

 **Iida Tenya:** Is this not an invasion into Midoriya’s personal affairs, however?

 

 **Froppy:** yeah but

 

 **Froppy:** consider

 

 **Froppy:** whens the last time he kept his nose out of any of OUR personal problems?

 

 **Froppy:** and whens the last time that was a BAD thing?

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** He has only himself to blame for being a bad influence on all of us, clearly.

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** im in.

 

 **Froppy:** same

 

 **Uravity:** cmon Iida!

 

 **Uravity:** hed do the same for us!

 

 **Iida Tenya:** …true. He HAS done the same before.

 

 **Iida Tenya:** I will go!

 

 **Iida Tenya:** But only to keep an eye on him! We will only intervene if Midoriya seems truly upset by the meeting!

 

 **Iida Tenya:** Midoriya mentioned something about meeting for lunch on the weekend, so it would not be entirely unreasonable for us to simply happen on him in a public place, would it?

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** Parents can be difficult. No matter how powerful you are yourself, it can be hard to stand up to them.

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** If this man is only interested in Midoriya’s Quirk, it may need to be made clear to him that Midoriya is surrounded by powerful people who have no qualms about defending him.

 

 **Uravity:** are u saying ur gonna scare dekus dad off?

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** **…** People keep telling me I’m frightening. Might as well put it to good use.

 

 **Shinsou Hitoshi:** huh

 

 **Shinsou Hitoshi:** and here I thought I was the creepy friend

 

 **Froppy:** girls

 

 **Froppy:** girls

 

 **Froppy:** ur both very scary

 

 **Froppy:** @Iida Tenya so did deku say where they were going?

 

~~~

 

“His problem isn’t his Quirk, it’s his _attitude_ ,” Nightwing sighed. “But I think a joint exercise—” He blinked funny for a moment. “I’m really sorry, I have a call. I think it’s important. May I step out and take it?”

 

“Of course,” Vlad King said with a nod. “I’ll wake up Aizawa to talk about joint first year exercises.”

 

Nightwing nodded, flipping over the desk instead of walking around it and putting a hand to his ear as he drifted over to a less occupied corner of the teachers’ lounge to start a hushed conversation in English. Vlad King headed for the couches, where Eraserhead was having his afternoon nap.

 

Present Mic was sitting on the opposite couch, grading a stack of English tests with a bored expression, his long legs kicked up and using the sleeping Eraserhead as a footrest. “You sure you wanna do that?” he commented mildly as Vlad King reached down to shake Eraserhead awake.

 

“I know the guy works all night, and I hate waking him,” Vlad King admitted, “but it’s for school work. He’ll understand.”

 

“Will you need help building something for the students?” Cementoss asked, walking past with a pile of dogeared textbooks. “I heard Nightwing-kun saying something about a wall in English as I passed by.”

 

“We’re considering joint exercises between classes 1-A and 1-B, to give the kids some practice teaming up with Quirks they’re less familiar with,” Vlad King explained. “And frankly, both classes have some serious problems getting along with each other that we need to deal with.”

 

“They need to drop these petty inter-class rivalries before they turn into genuine animosity,” Aizawa grouched, sitting up and unzipping his sleeping bag. “Heroes competing against each other for rankings might be common among the pros, but it isn’t rational.”

 

“Sorry to wake you up, but we do need to discuss how to handle joint exercises between 1-A and 1-B,” Vlad King said apologetically.

 

“There are twenty kids in each class, yes?” Nightwing said, veritably bouncing his way back over. It made for a really weird contrast with Aizawa, who was dressed very similarly but radiated exhaustion the same way the slightly younger hero radiated cheerfulness, like a goth All Might. “So we pair them up! I think rescue exercises might be an effective way of keeping animosity low, since it’s not as aggressive as fighting or racing! Sorry, but I have to speak to Principal Nezu about something. The two of you know the students better—could I ask for your guidance in choosing pairs? Thank you!”

 

With that, he bounced off again without either teacher getting a word in edgeways.

 

“…You ever just kinda remember that that guy was _Batman_ _’s_ sidekick and wonder what the hell is happening in America?” Present Mic commented, watching him go.

 

“…anyway,” Aizawa said, apparently deciding to ignore the whole thing. “Honestly, I think most of my students would be open enough to a teamup except Bakugo.”

 

“Same, except for Monoma,” Vlad King mused. “Most of them are able to treat it as a friendly rivalry, but that boy’s really got some hangups to deal with. It’s odd, because he actually works pretty well with most of his classmates and is generally a team player who can get along with any personality well. But if it’s a class A member… I don’t know. What about Bakugo?”

 

“I can give you students he tolerates, at best,” Aizawa sighed. “How do you think Tetsutetsu would handle him?”

 

~~~

 

_**Uravity** _ _changed the group name to_ _**Deku Protection Squad** _

 

 **Uravity:** we shouldve formed this ages ago

 

 **Uravity:** like at least six broken limbs ago

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** wait how many times HAS he broken his… everything?

 

 **Froppy:** I dont have a count but I think recovery girl does

 

 **Froppy:** but im scared to ask

 

 **Iida Tenya:** It is much less frequent now that Midoriya has obtained greater control of his Quirk! Truly, his first internship served him well.

 

 **Iida Tenya:** Regardless, we are assembled now!

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** @Froppy are you still following him?

 

 **Froppy:** Wish I had toorus quirk rn but yeah

 

 **Froppy:** hes heading down towards the nabu centre on main street

 

 **Uravity:** thought so!

 

 **Uravity:** thats where all the good cafes are

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** let me know when he gets close and ill disappear

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** havent seen anybody that looks like him

 

 **Uravity:** oh but dekus dad might not look anythin like him tho

 

 **Uravity:** like ive met his mom and he looks EXACTLY like her

 

 **Uravity:** but like with messier hair and more muscles

 

 **Uravity:** shes super chubby but like shes super cute bc of it

 

 **Iida Tenya:** She is a very kind woman! Though somewhat intense on occasion!

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** ok are we sure he definitely has a dad

 

 **Jedi Mind Trick:** his mom didnt just split like an amoeba and make a boy version of herself

 

 **Todoroki Shouto:** you live in a better world, Shinsou.

 

 **Froppy:** shit had to duck into a shop he almost made me

 

 **Iida Tenya:** there is no need for inappropriate language, Asui! We are all over the district and surely somebody else will spot him soon!

 

 **Froppy:** ill put 100Y in the swear jar if you call me Tsuyu

 

 **Iida Tenya:** My apologies, Tsuyu! Do not forget when we get back to the dorms!

 

 **Uravity:** I see him! in pursuit!

 

~~~

 

“Izuku? Is that you, son?”

 

“O-oh, there he is! Thanks!” Izuku said, bowing quickly to the server and heading over to the table in the corner that his dad was standing next to. Ten seconds in and he was already feeling awkward and wrong-footed about this whole thing, mainly because he’d swept the cafe when he walked in and had had no _clue_ which one of the men sitting alone was his dad until he’d stood up and called out.

 

Inko had a few old photos of Midoriya Hisashi, though they weren’t prominently displayed. The man in front of Izuku looked just enough like them and Izuku’s vague memories to assure him that this was probably his dad, though more heavyset and bearing a small moustache he hadn’t had when he was younger. His straight dark hair was parted neatly, and aside from some slight bags under his dark brown eyes he wasn’t showing much sign of having gotten off of a twelve-hour flight that morning.

 

“Wow, look at you! You sure sprouted, huh, Izuku?” Hisashi chuckled, making an odd arm movement before patting Izuku awkwardly on the shoulder. Izuku was relieved he’d settled for that; going for a hug _definitely_ would’ve been weird. “How’ve you been?”

 

 _For the last ten years?_ “Pretty good,” Izuku said, sitting down across the booth from him and grabbing a menu. It gave his hands something to do other than fidget nervously, and his eyes somewhere to look other than Hisashi’s too-bright smile, which felt overly familiar on somebody who was practically a stranger. Sure, lots of the heroes smiled all the time, like Present Mic and All Might, but, well… they were _heroes_ , smiling to make civilians feel safe and at ease.

 

They weren’t trying to pretend a relationship with somebody they hadn’t seen for a decade.

 

“Congrats on getting into UA! What’s it like?” Hisashi asked. “I wanted to apply myself as a kid—who didn’t, huh? But, well…” he pursed his lips, blowing a brief, slight jet of flame. “A cigarette lighter’s not much of a Quirk, is it? But you sure got a powerful one! You’re a real late bloomer!”

 

“There are lots of students on the hero course who don’t have powerful Quirks,” Izuku said, focusing on his menu. “I was going to apply even before I got my Quirk. It’s about helping people, not showing off your power.”

 

There was an awkward pause, before Hisashi coughed and said, “of course! That’s what being a hero is all about, isn’t it? But I bet a power like yours sure helps!”

 

“Well… I can’t really control it,” Izuku said, glancing at the scars on his right hand. “I mean, I’m getting better, but it’s still a lot to control.” He bit his lip, then added, “funny, isn’t it, how it’s nothing like yours or mom’s? Did either of your parents have a power like mine?”

 

“What? Oh, well, not really,” Hisashi said, weird smile briefly flickering out in confusion. “But I guess it could’ve skipped a couple generations or something, huh? Who knows, I’m no Quirk expert!” He laughed a little too loudly, a little too long.

 

“Hah… yeah,” Izuku said, offering his own weak chuckle. “What _do_ you do, actually? I can’t really remember.”

 

“Oh, it’s not very interesting…”

 

“Midoriya! Hey, fancy seeing you here!”

 

“Nightwing-sensei?” Izuku said in surprise, looking around as the American trotted over, waving. He wasn’t wearing his domino mask, for once, but he was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. He was out of uniform, instead wearing jeans and an open blue button-down over a black t-shirt that said “FLIP THE” in big English letters over a picture of a small bird hanging upside-down off of a branch.

 

He also had Principal Nezu sitting on his shoulder. “Hello, Midoriya! I hope you’re having a pleasant weekend!” the small hero said brightly. “Do you come here often? This cafe is one of my favourite places, so I thought I ought to introduce Nightwing-sensei to it, seeing as he’s new to the area!”

 

“Nightwing?” Hisashi said in surprise, the smile sliding off his face.

 

“Have we met? Oh! Wait! Yes! I know you!” Nightwing said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Hisashi. “You work for Waller, right? I saw you at that thing in Chicago!”

 

“ **That is confidential information,** ” Hisashi snapped in English. “ **This is not an appropriate conversation for a public place**!”

 

“Sorry, sorry!” Nightwing laughed, waving his hands. “Wow, Midoriya, are you planning to go pro in America?”

 

“What?” Izuku said, nonplussed.

 

Nightwing nodded at Hisashi. “Well, you’re meeting with a scout from ARGUS, right?” he said. “Gonna work as a hero for the US government? Though personally,” he added in a stage whisper, “I feel like using the term ‘hero’ for **Task Force X** is a bit of a stretch…”

 

“ **That is** _ **enough!**_ _”_ Hisashi snapped, shooting to his feet. “Izuku, we’re leaving.”

 

“Wait, hold on, Dad,” Izuku said, setting down his menu with a frown. He hadn’t read a word of it, anyway. “You actually work recruiting heroes for the US government?”

 

“Oh, this is your father, Midoriya?” Nezu said in surprise. “What a surprise! Your mother only listed herself as your emergency contact, so I had no idea he was in the picture, if you don’t mind my saying!”

 

“I mean, he hasn’t been, until now…” Izuku said, standing up. “Dad, what are you here for?”

 

“To see you, of course,” Hisashi said with a frown. “I know it’s been a long time, we’ve got a lot to catch up on—”

 

“Like my Quirk, right?” Izuku said, his heart sinking. He’d half-expected this, really, but it still hurt a little to have it confirmed. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? It’s the only thing you’ve asked about, and the timing can’t be a coincidence. You’re only acting like you care because I finally got a powerful Quirk. Is that what you’re after?”

 

“Now, there’s no need to be hysterical—” Hisashi began.

 

“I’m perfectly calm,” Izuku said flatly. “ _You_ _’re_ sweating bullets, though. Is that why you didn’t even tell Mom you were coming? Are you trying to convince me to come back to America with you?”

 

“Is it so strange that I miss my son and want him to live with me again?” Hisashi said, spreading his hands in a show of supplication. Principal Nezu was frowning; Nightwing somehow managed to roll his eyes so hard it was visible around his sunglasses.

 

“Well, since you’ve never said a word about Mom or I living with you since we left fourteen years ago, kinda, yeah,” Izuku said dryly, which actually made Nightwing laugh.

 

“I’ve been working very hard to support you and your mother, you know,” Hisashi snapped. “There’s no call at all to speak to your own father that way!”

 

“Well, if you don’t like it, I think _I_ _’m_ done here,” Izuku said, starting to turn around. Hisashi reached out as if to grab his arm, but suddenly Nezu jumped down on it, knocking Hisashi’s arm away as the principal bounced onto the table.

 

“Get off of me! How dare you interfere when I’m trying to speak to my _son_!” Hisashi snarled, huffing a little fire. Nezu brushed off his trousers, entirely unintimidated despite the height difference even while he was standing on the table.

 

“I’m afraid that as Midoriya’s principal, I have to express concern about him apparently being cornered by a man who is not known to me as his legal guardian,” Nezu said in his usual bright, pleasant tone, entirely at odds with the little twinkle in his eye that was enough to give Izuku flashbacks just to _watching_ the first term final exams.

 

Nightwing didn’t say anything, but did tap Izuku on the shoulder and, when he caught Izuku’s eye, nodded at the cafe window. When Izuku turned to look, it took all of three seconds to spot Todoroki’s distinctive two-tone hair in front of a clothing store across the street, right next to Shinshou’s bright purple mop, and from there to spot Iida, Uraraka and Tsuyu hovering nearby, all with their eyes fixed on the cafe.

 

“I just remembered that I have to go meet my friends, anyway,” Izuku said loudly. “I made plans with them before you emailed me at the last minute, you see, and I wouldn’t want them to think I’d _abandoned_ them.” Nightwing actually burst out laughing at that, which gave him the boost he needed to turn and walk out of the cafe with his head held high instead of fleeing.

 

“Oh! Deku! Fancy seeing you here! Wow, isn’t that weird? Tsuyu and Iida and I were going to go shopping and then we ran into Todoroki and Shinsou and thought—” Uraraka babbled when she spotted him making a beeline for them.

 

“That you’d come spy on me?” Izuku asked. Uraraka, Iida and Tsuyu at least had the decency to look embarrassed, while Shinsou just shrugged and Todoroki held his gaze defiantly. Izuku exhaled, sagging. “Thanks, guys. I know you’re here because you were worried about me. Kacchan was right, he’s only here because he wants my Quirk—he works for the US government recruiting Heroes to work for them, Nightwing-sensei recognized him. He was trying to use our relationship to _recruit_ me.” The words felt bitter in his mouth, and he spat them out with maybe too much force, but his friends were unruffled, knowing it wasn’t directed at them.

 

“Well, looks like Nezu’s got him pretty cornered, so he probably isn’t going anywhere for a while,” Shinsou said, nodding at the cafe. Izuku glanced back to see that Hisashi was still in the corner booth, Nightwing blocking his way out while Nezu still stood on the table, chattering away with his own too-bright smile. The server looked afraid to approach them. “So it’s not like he can follow you if we bounce now. Sorry he sucked,” he added flatly. “I mean, it happens, but it still sucks.”

 

“Thanks,” Izuku sighed. “Yeah, let’s go.”

 

“Did you eat? You weren’t in there for long,” Tsuyu said, abandoning any pretense that they hadn’t followed Izuku to the meeting.

 

“Maybe we should go back to the dorms to get food,” Todoroki said, turning and walking down the street. “Then he can’t track us down after he escapes from the principal. I doubt he has campus access.”

 

“He doesn’t… Principal Nezu says my mom’s my only emergency contact,” Izuku said, following. Iida and Uraraka drifted to either side of him, with Tsuyu and Shinsou following close behind, and the strategist part of his brain that never quite turned off immediately noted that he was being encircled.

 

It was protection, though. It was safety. It was his _friends._

 

“Hey, the dorms are kinda empty this weekend! We can super take over the games room and have a movie marathon!” Uraraka said excitedly. “Iida, do we have popcorn in the kitchen?”

 

“We do not, but there are several combinis on our route back to campus,” Iida assured her. “I believe the Family Mart on the next block has the widest selection. Which movies do you think we should watch?”

 

“I bet you’re big on superhero movies, huh, Deku?” Tsuyu said, nudging him in the back. “What’re your favourites?”

 

“Oh, um… actually, real-life heroes are so cool, no movie’s ever really compared for me,” Izuku admitted. “When I was a kid, my favourite video was a two-hour compilation of footage of All Might’s top twenty coolest rescues…”

 

“I don’t think I’ve seen that,” Todoroki commented. “My father isn’t particularly fond of videos of All Might, though my mother used to watch them with me when I was small.”

 

“Midoriya is right! Real heroes are a true inspiration!” Iida agreed. “I believe there is a similar compilation of my brother if you would like to watch that after the All Might compilation!”

 

“Sounds cool,” Shinsou agreed. Izuku smiled, happily sinking into the discussion of which of their teachers probably had youtube compilations.

 

The meeting was still frustrating, in the back of his mind, but hopefully it would soon be gotten. He could go back to forgetting Midoriya Hisashi even existed and go on with his life.

 

~~~

 

“Thanks for helping me find that place,” Nightwing said as he made his way back to the UA campus, Nezu back to sitting happily on his shoulder. Midoriya Hisashi, according to the tracker he’d stuck on the man and Oracle’s research, was headed back to a hotel nearby. Until he left the country again, they’d have to keep watch. “I’m not great at finding my way around on ground level sometimes.”

 

“Not at all! That was delightful fun!” Nezu said, nose twitching happily. “I will not ask how you or the inscrutable Oracle knew where they were, but I appreciate the tip that an agent of ARGUS wass sniffing around our students. Despite playing a little foolish to annoy the man, I know just fine who they are and I do _not_ allow them to send any literature to our careers department. I’ll be sure to add him to security’s blacklist. Young Midoriya didn’t express any interest in further contact, anyway.”

 

“Thank you, principal,” Nightwing said, putting a hand in his pocket, ostensibly to check his phone but also subtly checking the small plastic bag and the small but functional hair and skin samples he’d swiped. This next part would be… delicate. Possibly Nezu would have to know eventually if Oracle and Batman’s suspicions were true, possibly not, but…

 

It would be Midoriya Izuku’s right to decide, first and foremost. His and his father’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a chatlog into this fic, does this make me officially A Hero Writer now or do I need to give them meme screennames for it to count
> 
> For anybody who's not familiar with DC, Nightwing reveals in this chapter that Midoriya Hisashi's vague job in America is working for Amanda Waller, director of a number of shady quasi-governmental agencies including ARGUS and operates Task Force X, perhaps better known as the Suicide Squad. I'm curious to see if anybody can guess where I'm really going with her being involved :3


	3. History and Legacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku has a meeting with Nightwing concerning his father.

If he’d ever expected it to happen, Toshinori wouldn’t have expected his withered form being publicly revealed to make teaching _easier._

 

He couldn’t have predicted how it changed his interactions the students—or didn’t. He’d expected disgust or revulsion or, at best, sympathy, the reactions he was used to getting when he walked around with his Quirk off, but he hadn’t expected that people _knowing_ he was All Might wouldn’t just add disappointment to that list. Students still looked up to him (literally, mostly, given his height remained intact) with stars in their eyes whenever he approached, still attended his classes with the sort of rapt attention that the other teachers half-mockingly complained of envying, still made him feel like he had something to contribute. His thirty years of experience in the hero industry hadn’t evaporated with his muscles, after all. Even if he couldn’t engage with physical exercises anymore he could still do what to him had always been the most important, if least flashy, part of the job—offering advice and support.

 

 _Teaching For Dummies_ had been an invaluable resource in helping him learn how to shape his thoughts on the young heroes before him into actual advice, as had the other faculty members when Aizawa had finally broken down in seething hatred of seeing Toshinori toting around _Teaching For Dummies_ and staged an intervention. His relationships with the rest of the faculty were getting better, come to that, when he was actually spending time in the staff room in his shrunken state instead of hiding away alone out of shame and embarrassment once his time was up.

 

He still had time limits, of sorts, even with his Quirk gone—without it he was a skeleton with not much except half a lung, three-quarters of a kidney, a barely functional digestive system and an extensive collection of joint pain to his name. He quickly found himself grateful for Nedzu refusing to give Toshinori any morning classes and insisting on him teaching exclusively afternoon heroics courses, since even without physical activity those were enough to leave him exhausted and aching by the end of the day. But he was grateful he’d kept his word to teach at UA even after finding young Midoriya made the search for a successor unnecessary. Not just because it made it easier to continue to mentor the boy himself, but because he found teaching all of the young heroes walking UA’s halls incredibly fulfilling. Advising them, guiding them, watching their eyes light up as they figured out a new technique or the solution to a problem, imagining the kind of heroes they’d become…

 

It was worth all the exhaustion migraines in the world. Which was lucky, because he seemed to be getting them on a daily basis.

 

He could feel one starting to build as he sat in the faculty room with Thirteen, going over joint lesson plans. A nap would probably sort it, eventually, but the trade-off would be an _awful_ back for the rest of the day. The faculty lounge couches were an uncomfortable napping prospect even for people who _weren’t_ over two metres tall with no cushioning on their bones at all, but borrowing an infirmary bed for a nap risked taking a bed that a student would need and assured a lecture about not putting off his pain meds from Recovery Girl.

 

 _Maybe I should ask Aizawa if his sleeping bag’s an unusual make, comfortable enough to sleep anywhere without ruining your back. Or is he just_ that _tired all the time?_

 

The thought of Recovery Girl gave him an idea. “We should probably talk to Recovery Girl about moving up the field medicine classes, too,” he suggested. “Most of the first-years who lost points in the provisional license exam lost them on their failures in first aid procedures, which is understandable since we sent them to the licensing tests without any training at all in that department.”

 

“Oh my god, you’re right,” Thirteen sighed, putting a hand to their helmet. “It’s a miracle HUC didn’t fail _all_ of them, really. Knowing how to navigate a wildfire or a landslide isn’t worth anything if you just aggravate the injuries of the civilians you’re trying to reach, or worse…”

 

“I can probably teach some intro classes to make sure the kids are all up to date on their basic first aid before unleashing Recovery Girl on them to tell them her top ten nastiest facts about head injuries,” Toshinori said, looking down a heavily marked-up syllabus, “but it would mean pushing back some of your situational exercises…”

 

“That’s fine,” Thirteen said, waving a hand. “Lots of them are taking on internships and work studies, that kind of experience is easier to pick up in the field. Medical assistance is a lot harder to intuit, especially because dealing with serious injuries often feels counter-intuitive…”

 

Toshinori nodded with a sigh. “Don’t remove the weapon from the wound, don’t ice a burn…” He listed off. “Made both of those mistakes and more when I was younger, and I’d rather the students didn’t have to deal with that kind of guilt. I’m glad this is part of the UA curriculum these days. It wasn’t when I was a student.”

 

“Really?” Thirteen said in surprise. “Field medicine was an elective when I was a student, not a requirement, but we all had to do first aid at least. Nothing?”

 

Toshinori shook his head and immediately regretted it. He was _definitely_ going to spend lunch finding somewhere comfortable to sleep. “Rescue wasn’t part of the curriculum when I was a student at all. It’s an unfortunate truth of our profession that turnover can be very high, between career-ending injuries and fatalities, so I don’t think there are many heroes who remember how _modern_ rescue heroism is. When I was a boy, Heroes were big guns who got called in to fight villains too powerful for the police to take down, and that was _it_.”

 

“You should write a history lecture on this,” Thirteen said, sounding earnestly fascinated. “I know that’s what the hero profession originally was, but I had no idea how _recent_ it was! What changed?”

 

“This guy came on the scene, the way I learned it,” Nightwing said, doing that thing where he appeared from apparently nowhere, though unlike his mentor he did so with a friendly smile on his face. Toshinori could never decide if this was better or not. “B made me study all sorts of hero history when I first became Robin. Your debut, where you saved five hundred people in an hour—that was a record, right?”

 

“Well, I wasn’t exactly trying for Guinness, my boy,” Toshinori said. “I was trying to save everybody caught in that awful earthquake—and I did!” He couldn’t keep the pride out of his voice, and didn’t care if it was egoistical. There were too many days where he couldn’t reach everybody, but that hadn’t been one of them.

 

“What I mean is, though, it made headlines all over the world,” Nightwing said, perching on an empty seat. “That wasn’t the kind of thing heroes made headlines for much at the time, was it?”

 

“Well, that part was a little deliberate,” Toshinori admitted. “I’d gotten involved in a few incidents before that, but I usually left the scene pretty quickly. After all the injured were in safe hands, that rescue was the first time I stayed to speak to the media, to introduce All Might to the world!” He tried to put a little boom in his voice, but only succeeded in giving himself a coughing fit. It didn’t bring up more than a couple spots of blood, though, so he took that as a warning shot and lowered his voice. “Of course I continued to deal with villains when called in to do so, but I went out of my way to find natural disasters and the like to help out at instead of just helping with things in my immediate area, and I always stayed to speak to the media afterwards. I was mugging, I know, but I wanted the idea of heroes being more active in rescuing people than punching villains to become a public conversation. At the time, I could use my Quirk twenty-four hours a day for a solid week before needing to rest, so it was pretty easy to make an impression.”

 

“I’m leaving a note for Midnight, you’re taking one of her history lectures to talk about this,” Thirteen said, scribbling something on her copy of the syllabus. “The kids will eat up The History Of All-Might with a spoon, obviously, but I really hope it’ll inspire the aspiring Rescue Heroes to hear how important Rescue Heroism is to you. Combat Heroism is still the flashier track, I’m afraid.”

 

“Eh, I still prefer the privacy of Underground Heroism, myself,” Nightwing said with a shrug. “All that work, twenty-four hours a day, though… where does that come from? That kind of work ethic is pretty rare. I mean, B would do it if he could, but _he’s_ deeply paranoid. Like, I love him, but he is.”

 

“I decided at a young age that I wanted to change the world,” Toshinori said simply. “That sort of thing makes a lot of work, you know.”

 

“No doubt!” Nightwing laughed. “Can’t have left you with much time for a personal life, though. Was that ever a problem for you? If that’s a prying American question, tell me so, I’m just trying to hit the balance myself and it’s rough.”

 

“It’s a little personal, but there isn’t much to tell,” Toshinori admitted. “No, I’ve never had much of a personal life. Being All Might was always more important to me, and it’s been very satisfying.”

 

“It _is_ hard to hit the balance, as a hero and a teacher,” Thirteen sighed. “I haven’t been on a date in _years_. But I can’t really see myself with a family. I love the students, of course, but trying to raise a family… I don’t know how I’d have time for it!”

 

“It’s rarely compatible with heroism, both due to time and putting your loved ones in danger,” Toshinori agreed with a grave nod. _Sensei gave up her son to keep him safe but they never even_ knew—no, that was a dark train of thought and not one he felt up to following right now. “And I simply never thought about it before. It _is_ very fulfilling teaching the children here, though, and I’ve always gotten a lot out of supporting schools and refuges. Giving children hope for the future is an invaluable thing.”

 

Nightwing nodded thoughtfully. “Makes a whole lot of difference to the path in life a child goes down,” he said softly in English, then perked up, patting Toshinori’s shoulder. “The History of All Might is super cool and I might sneak into your seminar, but actually I’m here because I’ve got something important to talk to you about. I’ll let you finish up here first, though. It, uh… might go on for a while.”

 

“Is it about classes?” Toshinori asked, gesturing to the schedules and syllabi that he and Thirteen had spread out on the desk between them. “We’ve been rearranging some lesson plans, if you have anything to add.”

 

“Or you can add them tomorrow, if you’re undecided,” Thirteen chuckled. “A side-effect of the freeform teaching here is that this stuff is being changed _daily_.”

 

“Not about teaching,” Nightwing said, shaking his head with an uncharacteristically somber expression. “I’m gonna go wait in the conference room down the hall, okay? The on the Principal’s turned into a goddamn Faraday cage. It’s frankly impressive. Seriously, make sure you’re finished up. It can wait.” He hopped back to his feet and headed for the hall door.

 

“That’s… concerning,” Thirteen said. “I can go talk to Recovery Girl about rescheduling First Aid and Field Medicine courses, if you want to go deal with whatever that is.”

 

“Thank you, Thirteen,” All Might said, standing up. “I think I’d better see to whatever this is as soon as possible.”

 

The sofas in the _secure_ conference room had removable cushions. Maybe after he’d talked to Nightwing, he could put the cushions of both couches together on the floor for a nap.

 

~~~

 

“Midoriya,” Aizawa called just after the lunch bell rang, over the clatter of all of 1-A grabbing their bags and breaking into groups of chatter about whether to go to the cafeteria or outside for lunch.

 

“Yes, Sensei?” Izuku asked, giving Uraraka and Iida an apologetic smile before heading up to the lectern to see what his homeroom teacher wanted.

 

“Nightwing-sensei wants to speak to you in conference room F,” Aizawa said, looking down at a sticky note stuck to the edge of his lectern. “Said it was concerning some encounter you had on the weekend.” He gave Izuku a long, unblinking look, not the Quirk-erasing sort but the sort that he’d started to recognize as the Pro Hero trying to assess if the person he was looking at was okay or not. Aizawa-sensei tended not to ask “are you okay?”, since he generally considered it a pointless question. Instead, he had an uncanny ability to give somebody a _look_ and give an unnervingly accurate statement of what wasn’t okay.

 

Izuku decided to beat him to it. “My dad came to visit on the weekend,” he said. “For the first time in, uh… ten years. It was pretty awkward. Nightwing-sensei ran into us and I think he recognized my dad from something in the US, but I kinda just took any excuse to duck out of that lunch. Like I said, it was awkward. He probably just wants to talk about that.”

 

“Explains why a Midoriya Hisashi was added to the security blacklist,” Aizawa commented, pulling a juice packet out of some hidden pocket on his outfit and relaxing imperceptibly. “Tell him not to be so vague when mentioning he encountered my students outside of school. Made me think I’d missed a League of Villains attack somehow.” With that, he pulled his sleeping bag out from under the lectern and slouched off.

 

“Is everything okay?” Asui asked when he headed back over to pick up his bag.

 

“Yeah, Nightwing-sensei just wants to talk to me about my dad,” Izuku said, pulling his bag onto his back. “Go on without me and I’ll catch up to you later!”

 

“Okay! If we leave the cafeteria, we’ll stick around the gate so you can find us!” Uraraka promised.

 

Izuku knew conference room F; it was the one where All Might had first told him about All For One, and in general seemed to be the first stop for having private conversations. He was used to meeting All Might there, so it took him a moment to register surprise to see his mentor in the conference room where he was going to meet Nightwing.

 

“Midoriya-kun! Come on in,” Nightwing said, smiling brightly and waving Izuku over. All Might also smiled in greeting, though there was something odd about his expression. He was pale, a little wide-eyed, his hands folded in his lap and repeatedly rubbing his knuckles over and over anxiously.

 

“Nightwing-sensei? All Might? Is everything okay?” Izuku asked, sitting down in the indicated seat on the couch next to All Might. “Is this about my dad?”

 

All Might twitched oddly in his seat.

 

“Sort of,” Nightwing said with a nod. “Don’t mind All Might, I just had to give him some news that I guess he’s still processing. It is about Midoriya Hisashi, I guess, and ARGUS. And Amanda Waller. Have you heard of her?”

 

“Not before you mentioned her, no,” Izuku said, shaking his head. “She works for the government, right?”

 

“Not for much longer, perhaps, depending on how far Batman’s investigation goes,” Nightwing said seriously. “Her job is… _procuring_ Heroes with powerful Quirks to work directly for the US government. I can’t say hiring because Task Force X, for example, is made up of convicts who are offered reduced sentences in exchange for taking on highly risky missions.”

 

“That was why my dad was here, right?” Izuku said morosely. All Might put a comforting hand on his shoulder, though there was an odd hesitance to it, the sort that only showed up when he felt guilty about something, though Izuku couldn’t figure out what.

 

“Well… your dad’s an odd figure in Waller’s organization,” Nightwing said, sitting forward and leaning his chin on his folded hands, elbows propped up on his knees. “I was looking into him and, to be frank, he’s not the sort of person Waller usually promotes the way she has. No Quirk that’s useful for intelligence work, and, honestly, not a tremendous amount of regular intelligence to speak of. But she’s put him in a stable, well-paid position, that _coincidentally_ gave him an in to approach you and your unusually powerful Quirk. Now, I grew up Batman’s sidekick, and he is not a man who believes in coincidence, so when I see one, I dig. And I found something _really_ weird.” He looked at All Might, almost inquisitively. All Might squeezed Izuku’s shoulder, then dropped his hand away, starting to press his own hands together nervously again. Nightwing nodded, then continued, “Midoriya Hisashi is not your genetic father, Midoriya-kun.”

 

“…What?” Izuku asked, eyes widening as the implications sank in. “Does he _know_ —who’s—?”

 

Nightwing held up a hand. “This is gonna get complicated. I spoke to your mother about him. She didn’t even know he was in town. I asked what her relationship with him was like, back when they had one. We had tea and a little chat about relationships.” He smiled charmingly. “Don’t give me that look, Midoriya-kun, your mother’s a lovely lady and of course I’m not going to barge into her house and accuse her of adultery. Which she’s never committed, by the way. She mentioned that her relationship with Hisashi-san was never as close as she would have liked, and she wanted to have you in part because she hoped it would bring them closer together, and she thought he was all aboard with that. They had to delay because he needed some fertility surgeries. That was interesting news. She didn’t know in detail what exactly he needed, only that his job paid for it. Depending on the kind of surgery, fertility surgeries _can_ cause somebody to father or carry a child that isn’t genetically related to them.”

 

“Oh,” Izuku said, relaxing a little. “So… that’s what you wanted to tell me?”

 

“No, because it’s the issue of who _is_ your genetic father that’s… interesting,” Nightwing said, shaking his head. “His work paid for his fertility surgeries? It’s not the kind of thing that’s usually covered under work health insurance in the US, unless it’s related to his job. Unless it was.”

 

All Might twitched again.

 

“He… needed to have a kid for his job?” Izuku asked with a frown. “Like… some kind of weird long-term recruitment plan?”

 

“Oooh, you’re close!” Nightwing laughed. “Actually, yeah. Oracle did some digging into Waller’s secure files and found your dad’s first unusual promotion, about a year before you were born. A project called All Might Beyond.”

 

There were moments when the world seemed to fall away, everything but what Izuku could almost see happening before it did. The moment that he realized that All Might was about to tell him that he could be a Hero. The moment he saw Uraraka trapped under the rubble in the entrance exams and knew he had to save her. The moment he _knew_ Kacchan was about to disappear into the darkness without Izuku being able to reach him.

 

This moment.

 

“Waller wanted All Might, but he wasn’t going to stay in the US and work directly for the government,” Nightwing explained. “So she needed his Quirk. She stole his DNA, probably blood or a stray hair from a fight. She still doesn’t know that his Quirk isn’t inborn. She wanted to create a child who was genetically All Might’s and stood a strong chance of inheriting his Quirk, and rewarded the employee willing to have a fertility surgery allowing him to father a child that was genetically All Might’s, but raised in America, by a member of Waller’s inner circle, under her influence, to become a truly all-American All Might.” He smirked. “Must’ve given her a goddamn heart attack when your mother decided to decamp to Japan without warning!”

 

 _A child that was genetically All Might’s_.

 

He turned to his mentor and saw the same shock, but sunk in deeper, settled enough for the man to look past it for Izuku’s reaction with a mix of fear and…

 

“I never knew,” he said quietly. “Not that she took my DNA, or what she was doing with it. I’m sorry that this was kept from you too. There aren’t any obligations with this information, my boy. Your feelings for your father don’t have to be affected by—”

 

“All Might,” Izuku said with a strangled laugh, “you replaced my father when I was _three._ This is right up there with you telling me I can be a Hero and that I got into UA for _the greatest thing I’ve ever heard in my whole life._ ”

 

With that, he burst into tears and launched himself along the couch to hug his mentor—genetically, his _father._ Some strategic part of his brain noted that this was probably why Nightwing had sat them on the same couch.

 

“It makes me happy too, my boy,” All Might said warmly, love etched deep in his voice. _Love_. Just like his mother’s. “It makes me sad that I never knew about you before, or that it took so long for me to be by your side. But I am happy that we found each other, and that I can be in your life now.”

 

“Oh my god, you guys are wholesome,” Nightwing cooed, making Izuku start. He’d momentarily forgotten the American hero was still there. “I’m happy for you guys, really. Batman’s still gonna wreck Waller’s shit for illegally stealing and experimenting with stolen DNA, mark my words. Plus, he needs to find out if she’s done the same with any other Heroes. All Might Beyond was shelved, from what we can find—when you turned out Quirkless, she probably decided it wasn’t worth the time and resources to try again until they could learn more about how Quirks are passed on.”

 

“You likely inherited your Quirklessness from me,” All Might murmured quietly. “I _am_ sorry for that, my boy.”

 

“S’okay,” Izuku sobbed happily. “Wow, th-they must’ve _freaked_ wh-when they s-s-saw me use One For All in the S-Sports Festival, huh?” All Might chuckled, his whole bony frame trembling.

 

“Oh, I _wish_ I could’ve seen Waller’s face,” Nightwing said vindictively. “Batman’ll handle the investigation, he’s been hoping to bring Waller down for _years_ , but when he’s ready to present his findings it would sure help if you wanted to press charges, All Might. You don’t have to, though, if you’d rather keep your relationship to Midoriya-kun private. It’s up to you.”

 

“We have time to decide,” All Might said gently. “But we ought to inform your mother of this, my boy. She deserves to know.”

 

“She’s probably gonna divorce him,” Izuku sniffed, digging in his pocket for his handkerchief. “She’s joked a few times about how he wasn’t worth the effort, but she’s gonna be _furious_ , I know it.”

 

“She’s an intimidating woman when it comes to your well-being, my boy,” All Might laughed. Every single _my boy_ had always given Izuku a thrill of warm delight, but now it felt extra special. “I would feel sorry for Hisashi-san, but… I really don’t.”

 

“Me either,” Izuku said, wiping his nose and then going back to hugging _his father_ tightly. He was bony but big and warm, and in Izuku’s opinion his hugs were just as good when he was small as they had been when he was big and muscular. Just as warm, just as loving.

 

He wasn’t exaggerating when he said that All Might had filled the space in his heart marked _father_ since almost before he could remember, and even more so since he’d actually gotten to know and train with and learn from the man. The genetic connection wasn’t _necessary_ , he knew, but it still made him happier than he had words for.

 

Tears, though. Tears he could do.

 

He didn’t notice when the end-of-lunch bell rang, or when Nightwing slipped out of the room, too consumed in hugging and talking to his _father,_ talking about telling his mother and friends and the world. Izuku was already a major villain target, people were always noticing his connection to All Might, so he couldn’t think of any good reason not to excitedly scream this news from the rooftops. All Might was more cautious, though not, Izuku was overjoyed to realize, because he was any less excited; he was simply concerned about intense media invasion into Izuku and his mothers’ lives. But he had friends he could trust to keep a secret until he was ready for the publicity, and he already had enough secrets from them. And if a few people around them knew, it would be easier to spend time together, not just training but, well, doing father-son things, whatever those were. They both laughed to realize that neither of them really _knew_ , and were equally excited to plan on finding out.

 

It was as easy as he’d always thought it should be.

 

~~~

 

_**(2) new messages from Small Might** _

 

_Todoroki-kun_

 

_Do I have news for YOU_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I could have executed this better but basically I had the thought about "the episode where Terry finds out that Bruce is his dad in a weird scifi way, but All Might and Izuku and entirely without angst" and had to write it
> 
> Okay THIS time I'm probably not gonna write any more anytime soon but more thoughts about what happens from here:  
> A) Words gets out to the rest of 1-A fairly quickly because some people are collecting on a lot of bets but they put the work into keeping it from spreading further, even if occasionally Tsuyu has to snatch up and throw Mina or Kaminari out of a conversation to do it. Mostly it's because they like and respect Izuku, a good part of it's not wanting to attract MORE villain attention yet.   
> B) Bakugo bluescreens. He's probably so much more of a dick for a good while after this. His childhood idol is DEKU's dad. He needs to character develop more to cope with that.  
> C) Nezu is immediately informed because he needs to know about any conflicts of interest when it comes to which teachers test/grade which students, and also he'd find out anyway. He also collects a lot of bet money.  
> D) Aizawa is the only other staff member who is informed at first, because the homeroom teacher role is also a semi-guardianship role now that students are in the dorms. He sees his life flash before his eyes when he realizes that Midoriya is LITERALLY a small All Might and he probably has not BEGUN to plumb the depths of this boy's self-destructive potential  
> E) Izuku's a few months away from a growth spurt and it's gonna be a doozy. He mostly looks like Inko but that 2.2 metre height is coming for him. He's gonna stringbean for a bit as his muscles and mass catch up to his bones growing ("I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH BONE HURTING" "it's okay, it's puberty, it's GOOD bone hurting") and also hit his head on so many doors  
> F) The Wrath of Inko is going to be TERRIFYING to behold. She's gonna land herself a very tasty divorce settlement and give herself a nice spa holiday to process how much hero nonsense she's apparently been sunk in since she got married without knowing it. She deserves it. It's pretty violating to find out you were used as an incubator in a hero-growing experiment without knowing it, though she holds no beef with All Might and generally settles on feeling that if this fucked up situation is what happened, she couldn't have asked for a better son or a more dedicated man to turn out to be his father.   
> G) Generally in canon I think it would be a mistake for All Might to turn out to be Izuku's biological father and it's unnecessary given the strength of their emotional bond but it's still an idea I wanted to explore with fluff in fanfiction  
> H) This fic remains pairing neutral but please imagine a TodoDeku wedding in this AU. Fuyumi and Natsuo are so goddamn thrilled that All Might is their brother's father-in-law. Endeavour is not. I can't imagine Endeavour could be made to attend that wedding but imagine how much he would HATE it

**Author's Note:**

> Jesus god I want to keep this to a oneshot I wrote in a high fever while off work, why do I feel like I’m going to get more ideas about this
> 
> Okay so some facts in, around and adjacent to this fic:  
> A) Tsuyu is my favourite  
> B) Vaguely set after the end of Season 3 but before the Internship arc starts I guess, I haven’t read the manga yet and only know things about that secondhand  
> C) I’m glad that it’s a fandom convention to kick Mineta out of the class and replace him with Shinsou and I heartily endorse it  
> D) I watched in English because I’m sick and lazy but I do actually live and work in Japan so I made my best guess at the suffixes. I should watch in Japanese when I’ve got a clearer head but watching the anime in Japanese just for forms of address seemed a bit much for 7k of intrusive thoughts  
> E) Dick’s Quirk is indeed gravity control, but it was a late bloomer—it didn’t show up until after his parents died. Wishing he’d been able to control gravity when they fell haunts him, but this is a fun fic!  
> F) Oracle’s Quirk is an IQ boost—that is, she can burn calories for IQ points. She was already pretty damn smart and going in a wheelchair, with half of her body no longer using energy, made her IQ rocket up. She and Nezu are weird hacking rival friends, really.  
> G) Batman’s Quirkless. This is an absolute lockdown secret and he subtly encourages people to speculate on what his Quirk is.  
> H) All this happened because I devoured all of the BNHA anime in three days and then started thinking about what the Batfam’s Quirks would be and how much Class 1-A would wind up with a third dad (after Dadzawa and Dad Might) if Batman ever met them and then I caught up with the new Young Justice and thought “shit, Dick does the same damn thing.”  
> I) Pairing neutral because I really and truly don’t care


End file.
